Spread the word: Butter has an epic backstory

Spread the word: Butter has an epic backstory

 From happy Neolithic-era accident to inspiration for student protests to tabletop staple, butter has had quite the ride over the past 10,000 years. A new book tells the story.

Among the rolling hills of ancient Africa, sometime around 8000 B.C., a dusty traveler was making gastronomic history, quite by accident.

Thirsty from a long, hot journey, the weary herdsman reached for the sheepskin bag of milk knotted to the back of his pack animal. But as he tilted his head to pour the warm liquid into his mouth, he was astonished to find that the sheep's milk had curdled. The rough terrain and constant joggling of the milk had transformed it into butter — and bewilderingly, it tasted heavenly.

That's likely how it went down, as author Elaine Khosrova explains in her new book, "Butter: A Rich History." From happy Neolithic-era accident to inspiration for student protests to tabletop staple, butter has had quite the ride over the past 10,000 years.

The story of butter, Khosrova says, is a historical roadmap of humanity. "I felt like I had uncovered an epic story that very few people had been paying attention to," she tells NPR.

Butter appeared on the world scene soon after the domestication of animals, although the first primitive batches would scarcely resemble the sticks that sit on your refrigerator shelf. Instead of cows, she writes, early butter came from the milk of yak, sheep and goats — the very first tamed beasts of our ancestors.

And while archaeologists have unearthed a 4,500-year-old limestone tablet depicting early butter-making, it's not clear precisely how our ancestors shifted from "accidental discovery" to purposeful manufacturing. Khosrova writes that after trial and error, early civilizations probably realized that if they removed the milk pouch "off the back of animal and hung [it] like a cradle from a tree limb," it could be deliberately "agitated" into sumptuous golden kernels. According to Khosrova, isolated communities in North Africa and the Middle East still make their butter in this way.

As butter spread, it took on new uses and meaning. Ancient Romans associated it with barbarism, much preferring to slather their bread in locally abundant olive oil rather than resort to the food of their enemies, the marauding army from Gaul. But they appreciated butter for its "curative properties," Khosrova says. Romans used butter for cosmetic purposes and also as a healing balm, often sneaking tiny licks in between applications on their wounds.

Perhaps most surprising is the story of butter's sacred and supernatural past. For many ancient civilizations, the unexplained mystery behind milk's transformation into butter made it seem magical. It "seemed like a marvelous event," Khosrova says.

Ancient Sumerians offered up gifts of butter at temple in honor of the "powerful fertility goddess Inanna, protector of the seasons and harvest," she writes.

Recent discoveries in Ireland of ancient bog butter — wooden buckets loaded with butter and hidden in expanses of mossy swamp — date back as far as 400 B.C. These long-lost provisions were probably buried by early Celts, who knew that the Irish wetlands would preserve their spoils, keeping them edible for leaner times. But Khosrova also writes that ancient bog butter was likely presented to the pagan gods, as a way of appeasing the mystical "'faeries' that alternately terrified and awed country folk."

Even the first-ever documented student protest in American history is linked with butter. Harvard University's Great Butter Rebellion of 1766 began after a meal containing particularly rancid butter was served to students, who (not unlike modern college-goers) were frustrated over the state of food in the dining hall. As reported in The Harvard Crimson, Asa Dunbar (who would later become the grandfather of Henry David Thoreau), incited the student body into action by hopping onto his chair, shouting, "Behold our butter stinketh! Give us therefore butter that stinketh not!"

Once avoided for fears of making us overweight, butter is now making a vigorous comeback, with artisanal interpretations aplenty. And through small-batch production and experimentation, producers have returned to quaint traditions, such as slow-churning and hand packing, to recapture simple flavors and generate new ones.

As Khosrova sampled butter from around the world, she says that she was amazed by how a food with only one ingredient could produce so many diverse "nuances of flavors, textures and color."

How this happens is a mystery that has astounded and confounded humanity for centuries. The history of butter is both humble and wondrous. With a simple batch of milk and a little creativity, a luscious — and magical — golden food is born.

US Embassy in China sends new alert over mystery health issues

GUANGZHOU, China — The U.S. Embassy in China sent its second alert in two weeks Friday to its citizens over unexplained health issues that have prompted the evacuation of a number of U.S. government employees working at a consulate in a southern city.

The alert urged Americans to seek medical help in the event they suffered any "unusual, unexplained physical symptoms or events, auditory or sensory phenomena, or other health concerns."

The alert comes as a U.S. medical team is screening more Americans who work at the Guangzhou consulate. A previous case in Guangzhou, disclosed last month, prompted the tests.

The incidents have raised fears the unexplained issues that started in Cuba in 2016 have expanded to other countries. China says it has uncovered no information that could point to a cause.

The most recent evacuations followed medical testing that revealed they might have been affected. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said "a number of individuals" had been brought to the U.S. but didn't say how many were affected or evacuated.

Friday's alert called for people to be attentive of symptoms including "dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, ear complaints and hearing loss, and difficulty sleeping." It urged them "not to attempt to locate the source of any unidentified auditory sensation. Instead, move to a different location."

The U.S. government has deemed the Cuba incidents "specific attacks" on American workers but hasn't publicly identified a cause or culprit. Most of the incidents were accompanied by bizarre, unexplained sounds that initially led U.S. investigators to suspect a sonic attack.

Asked about the latest incidents, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that the U.S. had not formally raised the matter with Beijing.

"If the U.S. makes formal contact with us, China will continue necessary investigations in an earnest and responsible manner and maintain close communication and cooperation with the U.S.," Hua said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

China earlier said it had looked into the case announced last month but came up with no clues about the cause of the symptoms.

A U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the situation publicly and requested anonymity, said the evacuated American government workers were being brought from China for testing to the University of Pennsylvania. That's where doctors have been treating and studying patients previously evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

The preliminary findings of the medical reports on the 24 personnel affected in Cuba showed they had sensory and memory problems similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions.

The Penn team said the patients from Cuba experienced persistent disability though rehabilitation therapy customized for them seemed to help.

Canada in April also ordered families of diplomatic staff in Cuba to return home after mysterious health symptoms were detected in 10 Canadians stationed on the island. Canada said the 10 continued to show unexplained brain symptoms and that "medical information raised concerns for a new type of a possible acquired brain injury."

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month about the first case in China, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China had "said all the right things and have demonstrated their willingness to help us identify the vector which led to this medical incident."

The China incidents affect one of the most important of the seven U.S. diplomatic outposts in the country. The Guangzhou consulate opened months after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington in 1979 and moved to its new purpose-built facility in 2013.

It serves four southern provinces with a combined population of more than 204 million and processes more than 1 million visa applications of all types annually. It is also the only U.S. diplomatic installation in China authorized to process immigrant visas and handle adoptions.

People working in The Canton Place complex, a few kilometers (miles) from the consulate, said Thursday they were just hearing about the incidents, reflecting a lack of coverage in China's entirely state-controlled media.

Aled Williams, a British teacher at a kindergarten said Thursday that the reports sounded "sci-fi-ish."

"Hard to get my head around how it works," he said. "Better watch myself."

Linda Chen, who runs a coffee shop in the area, said she was mystified as to why only certain people seemed to have been affected in an area known for its comfort and safety.

"For me I feel it's very strange. But I don't feel that there's something to be very afraid of because it's probably a very special case," Chen said.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

Cohan: The mystery of Mitt Romney’s magic IRA

The cut in individual income tax rates proposed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney can be kept revenue-neutral only by curtailing or eliminating many popular tax breaks, according to a nonpartisan study.

The study released today by the Tax Policy Center in Washington estimated that in 2015, Romney would need to eliminate $320 billion in tax breaks, or 30 percent of the total, to pay for his proposed 20 percent reduction in tax rates.

Because those tax breaks are supported by lawmakers, taxpayers and interest groups, that goal sounds easier to achieve than it really is, said Roberton Williams, a co-author of the paper. He said President Barack Obama got nowhere in Congress in proposing much less far-reaching limits on tax breaks such as the deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Republicans and Democrats, the real estate industry and non-profit groups criticized curtailing those tax breaks.

“You’ve got to get a big chunk of very popular tax preferences to recoup the revenue loss,” said Williams, a senior fellow at the center.

Romney has called for reducing individual income tax rates by 20 percent, lowering the corporate rate to 25 percent from 35 percent and eliminating the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax. He hasn’t said what tax breaks he would curtail to make up for the lost revenue.

Upper Income

“Broadening the tax base would mean going into things like all of the deductions and scaling them back for upper-income people in particular,” Glenn Hubbard, a Romney economic adviser, said on Bloomberg Television April 17. “There are hundreds of ways to do that.”

Romney has said his proposal wouldn’t affect the current distribution of the tax burden among different income levels, and he has suggested that tax breaks may be eliminated or limited only for higher-income taxpayers.

Broad reductions in tax breaks, the study said, would tend to raise the effective rate for middle-income taxpayers.

Taking tax breaks for retirement savings, capital gains and employer-provided health insurance off the table would make the task more difficult, according to the study.

‘Very Difficult’

“It is possible to maintain revenues in the face of large marginal tax rate cuts by paring back tax expenditures, but it would be very difficult,” the study said. “The task becomes much harder if another objective is to maintain the progressivity of the federal income tax.”

Romney’s plan would repair the tax code and stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation, said Amanda Henneberg, a campaign spokeswoman, in a statement.

“This study is independent confirmation that even employing an economic model that ignores the pro-growth effects of reducing tax rates, these goals can be met,” she said.

The Obama campaign has criticized Romney for not saying how he would offset the cost of the tax rate cuts.

“He refuses to say how he’d pay for that massive tax cut for the wealthy, which means he’s either exploding the deficit or, according to independent analysts, raising taxes on the middle class by closing tax breaks for mortgages, health care, retirement and other benefits the middle class rely on,” Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, said in a statement July 9.

The study didn’t consider what it would take to offset the cost of Romney’s proposals to eliminate the estate tax and reduce the corporate tax rate. It also didn’t consider changes other than curtailing tax breaks.

The analysis said reducing tax rates would make it harder to offset the lost revenue by limiting tax breaks, because the breaks become less valuable when rates are lowered. The Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

–Bloomberg News–